In Spain, the scandal that erupted during the La Liga match between Valencia and Real Madrid continues to rage, when creamy winger Vinicius faced racist insults from fans. As can be heard on the recordings widely circulated online, fans also chanted: "Mono!", which means "monkey" in Spanish.
The royal club appealed to law enforcement agencies with a statement about insults to their player, and an immediate investigation led to the fact that three people were detained. All of them have been charged with committing a hate crime. According to the Spanish press, the Brazilian footballer will take part in the meeting of the Superior Court of Valencia via videoconference and testify as a victim. Before Vinicius's speech, the defendants will be interviewed.
The court also required Valencia to establish which of the guards and stewards worked at the stadium on the day of the game in order to call them to testify as witnesses. It is not specified when the hearings will take place.
At the same time, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) conducted its own proceedings. As a result, Valencia was fined € 45,27, and the grandstand named after Mario Kempes of the Mestalla stadium, from which racist shouts rushed, was closed for five matches. However, the club appealed this decision, and the punishment was mitigated: the fine was reduced to € <> thousand, and the ban on the use of the fan stand was knocked down to three games.
The judges who officiated the infamous meeting were also severely punished. In particular, the video assistant was dismissed, who showed the chief referee only an excerpt of the clash between Vinicius and Hugo Duro, which led to the removal of the Brazilian. The video replay included only the blow of the Real Madrid player without the actions of Duro that preceded him, grabbing the opponent by the throat. After a thorough analysis of the episode, the RFEF Sports Competition Committee canceled Madrid's red card. This fact, by the way, outraged fans of other teams, who accused the royal club of putting pressure on the federation.
Meanwhile, the players of Real Madrid before the match of the 36th round of Examples with Rayo Vallecano went to the warm-up in the same T-shirts with the 20th number, under which Vinicius plays, and the fans stretched banners in support of the Brazilian with the words "We've had enough!" The winger himself did not appear on the field due to knee problems, but watched his partners from the stands in the company of club president Florentino Perez. After the 20th minute, the fans began to applaud the Brazilian, the footballer got up from his seat and thanked everyone for their support. As the head coach of Madrid Carlo Ancelotti noted, psychologically the player is in perfect order, despite all the hype around his name.
And discussions of the high-profile event still do not subside. In particular, the president of La Liga, Javier Tebas, apologized to Vinicius for a rash tweet in which he stated that the Brazilian should not have spoken harshly about the championship and said that racism in it is commonplace. According to the functionary, he put it badly.
In addition, Tebas said that the leadership of the league is doing to eradicate the problem of racism in Spanish stadiums. According to him, at the beginning of each season, leaflets are handed out to fans, which explain the inadmissibility of certain chants. In addition, experts keep track of which stands most often appear inappropriate chants, as fans prone to violations most often gather together.
"We will continue to campaign against racism. We want the authority to be able to really solve this problem. It is very difficult for us to do this if the prosecutor's office closes the cases, arguing that the insults are the result of sports rivalry," Tebas stressed.
He also noted that various kinds of insults - not only of a racist nature - are most often faced by top-class football players, as their successful actions annoy the opponent's fans.
"If you look at it from the outside and study this topic, you will see that great athletes become targets of racist and homophobic anger. This has already happened to Messi and Cristiano. Vinicius is the best player of the tournament, and he suffers from the anger of the fans. His spectacular football breeds a certain hostility, but this does not mean that he is a provocateur. Insult is such a serious issue that the honor of the player and race should always prevail," said the head of La Liga.
Meanwhile, some players urged the Real Madrid player to be more restrained and not to engage in skirmishes with the audience. So, the former player of "Sevilla" Pintinho noted that his compatriot should focus on his work.
"Knowing that he loses concentration very quickly, people will provoke him, and he succumbs to provocations. If there are people who sing and insult, there are also people who have the authority to make decisions that need to be made. It's not Vinicius who has to confront the public. For an athlete, this is unacceptable, he should focus on his profession," said the former football player.
In turn, Villarreal goalkeeper Jose Reina noted that it is unlikely that players face racism at every stadium in Spain. In his opinion, these are only isolated cases that need to be identified and punished in a timely manner.
"These are typical rude people and fools who always find it difficult to restrain themselves. What needs to be done is to establish their identity and never let them into the stadium again. Those four, eight, or a thousand who called Vinicius a "monkey" should be condemned. It's sad that this is happening," the goalkeeper said.
The Brazilian, according to Reina, should grow up, accept some unwritten football values and codes, and show more respect for opponents. He stressed that insulting players often does not happen because fans really hold racist views. Sometimes they only take out their anger on one player for what is happening on the field.
"This happens to everyone, including me. In general, the less you provoke the stands, the less you provoke opponents and the less you protest in front of the judge, the more respect everyone will feel for you," Reyna concluded.